[!1
ÞR\" nOIlNCNú NOV.IZL
,-::J
. iJ
N';
,
It
1
\
i'
"''''-..-'\ C)
',-,.' '-.... '-.
(
'r
\'
"Bah, I could've written a better dénouement in my sleep."
. .
not often discussed on American cable-
news outlets. Five years ago, Pakistan's
economic growth rate reached eight per
cent annually, and the economy has con-
tinued to expand, if more slowly, even
since 2008, when the global financial cri-
sis and the domestic T aliban insurgency
took hold simultaneously. (The number
of Pakistanis living in poverty almost cer-
tainly has crept up again, and will move
higher still because of the floods.)
Islamist insurgents threaten Pakistan's
weak government, yet they remain widely
unpopular. In the last election, the reli-
gious party previously aligned with the
Taliban polled two per cent; in the coun-
try's history, religious parties have never
won more than twelve per cent in a na-
tional election.
Pakistan's economic expansion has
come, in part, by selling and smuggling
consumer goods to Indiàs growing mid-
dle classes. For Pakistan to overcome its
many burdens, it must make peace, or, at
least, normalize economic ties, with
India, which would include resolving the
Kashmir dispute. On this subject, the
United States could benefit from a sense
20 THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
of urgency comparable to its focus on
Pakistani terrorism. In 2007, the govern-
ments of India and Pakistan negotiated
the outline of an agreement that would
have further opened their border to trade.
A final deal has proved elusive, in part
because of evidence that Pakistan's Army
continues to support anti-Indian terror-
ist groups; the Obama Administration
has the leverage in Pakistan to hold the
Army accountable.
Economic growth is not a panacea for
social ills or political disarray, but policies
designed to unleash Pakistan's economy
during the next decade are far more likely
to reduce the threat of Tali ban-inspired
revolution than are military operations
and drone strikes. Examples of success
exist: Indonesia, which, like Pakistan, has
a large Muslim population and implausi-
ble borders left behind by imperialists,
suffered badly a decade ago from separat-
ist violence, AI Qgeda -linked Islamist ter-
rorists, and poisonous civil-military rela-
tions. By riding Southeast Asià s economic
boom, Indonesia has become a compara-
bly bland, democratic archipelago.
Pakistan's floods-like the tsunami
that swept across Indonesiàs northern
provinces in 2004-threaten to set the
country's economic growth back by years.
For the United States, preventing such an
outcome should be recognized as a strate-
gic as well as a humanitarian imperative.
So far, the Obama Administration has
displayed all the right instincts, by rushing
relief to civilians, affirming the primacy of
the country's elected leaders, and galva-
nizing other governments to pitch in. As
the waters recede, and the immediate cri-
sis passes, however, the challenge will be
to muster international investment to re-
pair Pakistan's infrastructure and catalyze
its economic recovery.
The agricultural market towns in
the flood zone-Ghotki, Jacobabad,
Shahdadkot-are not notable breeding
grounds for international terrorism. They
are home instead to the marginal lives of
another Pakistan, one poised for many
years between aspiration and collapse-
that of landless laborers, tenant farmers,
bus drivers, and shopkeepers. These Pa-
kistanis belong to no war party and live in
peaceful indifference to the United States.
To help reimagine their future, and that
of their country, the place to begin is to
come unconditionally to their aid.
-Steve ColI
DEPT. OF EDIBLES
CR.ACKED
" H ow would you like your eggs?"
This ordinary question turned
fraught during the past two weeks, when
a salmonella outbreak, originating on
two farms in Iowa, caused the recall of
more than half a billion eggs. By last
Monday, Margaret Hamburg, the F.D.A.
commissioner, was making an unusually
mouthwatering advisory, urging people
to avoid "runny egg yolks for mopping
up with toast."
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention estimates that some
fifteen hundred illnesses may be linked
to the outbreak so far. Although none
have yet occurred in N ew York, egg
angst has set in. On the Web site Urban
Baby, parents debated conflicting pieces
of wisdom: "Are organic eggs safe from